


Where We've Been

by Strewn_Limbs



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Childhood Friends, Gotham City - Freeform, Meeting for the first time, Nygmobblepot, a walk through time, chapter 1 - 5/6 years old, child shenanigans, childhood to prepubescence to teens to young adults to now, eventual pairing, just boys being boys, just not quite yet, pet project that's been sitting in wait, really just a fic to randomly update with chapters, they're only kids after all, this'll eventually end up with them as adults, until then though...
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-06-16 23:06:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15447858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strewn_Limbs/pseuds/Strewn_Limbs
Summary: Ordinary moments in life can lead to a spectacular ending.Meeting for the first time.Making a wedding pact.Difficulties at home.Time spent apart.Meeting again for the last time.Where they'd been seemed small compared to where they were going.





	Where We've Been

Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot was a large name for a small boy. The names all together seemingly larger than the child himself who was miniscule for his age with a round face, blonde wavy hair, and chubby belly. In one hand he had a worn-out bear who was once a plush, plum ursine toy with shining honey-colored eyes. Now it was missing part of its one remaining ear, left leg gone, and its fur color sunbleached to something resembling more of a pastel amethyst. Still, Oswald refused to give it up. It was his and he would be sure nothing ever happened to his bear.

With his other hand he held onto his mother’s fingers, staring at the building with a pouty lower lip that would make any makeup mogel jealous. “I don’t want to!” He declared, stomping a foot in defiance. “I want to stay with you! Please?!” Oswald often tried to get what he wanted from his mother, using his large lower lip and pale blue eyes in order to sway her choices in his favor. 

She was going to leave him with strangers! This was an outrage! This wouldn’t stand!

“Now, Oswald… you must go to school. It makes you smarter.” Gertrud Kapelput continued to lead her only son to the building. “We stayed together all last year. It was good, was it not?” She never addressed her son with a nickname shorter than Oswald. That was his name and he came from a wealthy father that the child never knew, he was named for great things and would live up to them like she knew he could.

“And I can stay again!” Oswald insisted to her, pulling on her hand to try and take them both back to the car, unwilling to part from his mindset and goals. “I stay with you!”

“Noooo… Oswald, you will go to school. You mustn't fall behind the other children, that’s not good. I cannot teach you everything…” 

“Yes! You’re a smart mother!” 

Gertrud smiled fondly, stopping in her paces to take her son into a hug. “You are such a good, smart boy. You are going to make plenty of friends. You’ll have so many friends, you will not need your poor, dear mother.” She picked him up in her arms, carrying him the rest of the way to the building.

“Noo!” Oswald adamantly rejected, arms around Gertrud’s neck, bear hanging behind her shoulders as they walked. “I love you! I want you, not friends.” He spoke, kissing her cheek affectionately as she always did for him. 

“I love you, _az én kedves fiam_.” 

“I love you, _anya_.” Oswald had been hearing Hungarian since he was born, the words his mother used not lost on him as he’d heard them many times by then.

“I need you to be big boy for me, Oswald.” She asked of him, walking into the kindergarten to leave him with the caretakers who were supposed to be able to help him grow further. Help him develop well as a socially met child. “Be good, be smart, and don’t let those other children bully you.” She instructed him, meeting her son’s eyes with her matching ones. “You are Cobblepot. You will be great today, yes?”

“Yes.” 

“Good.” She commented, kissing his forehead lovingly. “I will see you again later, be a good boy until I get you.” Gertrud placed her son inside the main room of the building where other children were running around, a number of them already in groups or pairs. They ran around with each other, laughed, played. Oswald stared into the crowd, hugging his bear against his chest as his mother met with the teachers and daycare workers that kept the building upright.

A little girl with blonde hair curled at the ends and bright blue eyes ran over to Oswald first with a boy in hand, giving him a large smile to expose her missing front tooth. “Hi! I’m Babs.” She introduced herself before grinning to her male companion with sandy brown hair and a scowl. “And this is my boyfriend, Jimmy.”

“M’not your boyfriend…” The boy kicked his foot against the floor, clearly not wanting to be there at the moment. He wasn’t entirely rude though, shrugging his shoulders at Oswald gently. “Hi.”

“Hello.” Oswald greeted back, confused by the interaction, not having had anyone in his mother’s apartment building around his age. 

“What’s your name, Silly?” Babs questioned, stepping closer out of curiosity, but Jimmy never left her grip. 

“Oswald.”

“Huh…” It sounded like an odd name, but she could manage that. “Ozzy, want to play house? You could be our baby!” She offered to the new boy, the blonde girl very inviting and friendly while the boy she held still frowned.

“I’m not a baby…” As far as he knew, he was older than most or all of the children there, they should be the babies. 

“No, you gotta pretend!” Babs clarified, her smile falling a bit as she waited expectantly for Oswald’s answer.

“No. I’m not a baby.” Oswald rejected entirely, hugging his bear with a huff, immediately not liking that he would be stuck in this place.

Babs’ smile fell entirely, the girl scowling heavily, seemingly offended more by Oswald’s negativity. “Then don’t!” She had her last word, stomping away and dragging Jimmy behind her like a ragdoll, the boy stumbling to keep up. 

Oswald frowned, looking around for where his mother went, seeing that she’d already left the room. He didn’t even get another goodbye! That wasn’t fair! She should’ve done it again! His eyes began to water, putting his bear in a death grip while his lower lip quivered in his upset state. She couldn’t do that to him! NO! NO! N-

“Hi.” 

A small voice behind Oswald had him turn around, ready to throw his tantrum regardless of who was there. He was not a baby! He was not playing house! Nothing! No! He wanted his _Anya_!

“I like your bear.”

Oswald sniffled, his interest caught when a small boy, nearly the same height as him but scrawnier, complimented his plush animal. “His name is Berg.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s Bergstrom.” Oswald pointed out, as though it was obvious, the round boy looking down at his stuffed friend considerately. 

“Oh.” The boy no larger than Oswald took the answer like it made sense, staring at the bear curiously. “Bears live alone lots. ‘Til they get a family. Then the mommas stay with the babies until they grow. Then they’re alone again.” The dark brown haired boy explained, his head a mess of almost tangled looking hair, smiling at Oswald with his fact.

“Well… Berg isn’t alone. He an’ me are friends.” 

“Lucky! I don’t have friends.” The boy stated, still standing by Oswald, chatting away positively like he hadn’t admitted to a rather lonely statement.

“Why?” It was Oswald’s turn to ask a question, his brows pushing down towards his eyes. Everyone in the place looked like they were playing together though… Did he just get here too? 

“They think I’m weird.” He admitted, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, brown eyes on Oswald, but they weren’t quite focused on him. “They… uh, they don’t like me.”

“Okay.” Oswald accepted this as fact, looking at the other boy curiously. “I’m Oswald.”

“Oswald? Okay. My name’s Edward.” The two boys stood silently for a long moment, one unsure and the other shy. “Do you want to play? Or… I know where there’s glue!” He offered as a backup suggestion, not everyone got to have glue. The adults kept it locked away. 

“Glue?” Oswald repeated, his head turning back to see Babs and her not-boyfriend playing in a large, plastic house. “Where is it? I know who needs some.” His grin was long and devious, the boy ready to get revenge against the girl who tried to make him be a baby.

Revenge was going to be sticky.

 

After a nap time and a small snack, Babs ran out of the house crying, hands and knees covered in still wet craft glue. Jimmy was inside the plastic house, looking around with a sigh, dreadfully inconvenienced. He managed his way out carefully, ditching his shoes inside at the door, walking out of his sneakers and into the main room in his socks. One of the teachers ran to Babs’ side to assess the situation, seeing the glue on her. 

“Sweetie… Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”

One teacher got Babs to the bathroom to begin wiping off the glue to clean her, the second going to talk to Jimmy. “What happened here?”

“There’s been crime, ma’am.” Jimmy stated, looking up to the teacher seriously. He loved playing cops and robbers, way more than house. House was so boring… 

The teacher nodded, listening to the boy. “Did you see anything, Officer Gordon?”

“No, ma’am. I’ll solve this case.” He offered as he marched off in his puppy socks, looking for clues to the culprits. 

 

Oswald and Edward were away from the crime scene, Oswald incredibly pleased with his vengeance while he sat with Berg and Edward in a corner to themselves. “Shows her and her dumb game.” The devious boy grinned, his feet wiggled in his delight. He held Berg by his arms, his hands directing the bear around in a happy dance. Edward smiled, just happy to be apart of a game, even if it was a scheme he had no fight in.

“Can I show you a thing I found?” Ed asked Oswald curiously, his hands finding each other in front of himself as he waited for an answer back. 

“What is it?” 

Ed smiled cheerfully, reaching into his pocket to pull out a broken rock that glittered under the lights. “See? It’s really pretty, I found it before outside.” He explained, having seen the glinting of the quartz in the light. It was a cheap, dirty, purple quartz not worth anything from the rock it sat in, but the child’s palm-sized stone was beautiful as far as he was concerned and was different. “You have it, it matches Berg.” 

“Me? Ed this is your rock.” He didn’t need Ed’s rock, but it definitely was pretty. It was colored a little like Berg, or perhaps Berg a couple years ago when his color was just a tad brighter. How it sparkled was captivating. 

Ed shrugged softly in return, offering the rock out to Oswald again. “You can have it, promise I won’t be sad. I have more at home.” He swore to Oswald. He did have a few more rocks like these at home, though they were smaller, or were just a broken piece off of a larger rock. He had white ones and pink ones, but this purple one suited Berg so well, it should be Oswald’s.

Oswald considered the offer before taking the rock from him, holding it in his lap to catch the light on the exposed bits of natural crystal. “Thank you, it’s so pretty.” 

“It can be a friend rock!” 

“A friend rock?”

“Yeah!” Ed was getting quite excited about his _friend rock_ idea, pointing at the stone Oswald now kept on him. “You keep it and it means we’re friends. It’s a friend rock.” 

Oswald laughed a bit at the suggestion, missing the dejection on Ed’s face while his eyes were firmly kept by the glitter the rock had. “Okay, this is our friend rock.” He agreed with it, caught off guard when Ed threw his arms around him, Oswald instantly clutching his bear and his rock closer to his chest to keep them guarded. 

“Thank you! You’re my best friend!” And his only. So competition wasn’t necessarily fierce, but the sentiment remained. Ed continued to hug Oswald, not well acquainted with personal space in his years so far socializing with others. Ed had a bad habit of being nearly shoulder-to-shoulder with his peers when there was no reason to be, being in personal bubbles, and poking his nose into things that weren’t his business. He was a curious boy, simply wanting to be closer to people, but few understood his _odd_ personality quirks. How he brought people random bits of string, rocks, leaves, flowers, like a type of cat trying to win favor with anyone he could.

Oswald relaxed in the hug once he realized what was going on, setting his items in his lap and returning the hug, placing an innocent kiss on the other boy’s cheek like he would do with his mother.

Ed pulled back first, seemingly stunned by the given affection. “Why’d you do that?”

“Do what?”

“You kissed me.” 

Oswald failed to see what Ed’s point was, staring at him blankly. “So?” 

“So boys don’t kiss other boys.” 

“Well I do. I’ll kiss anyone. If I like someone, they can get a kiss.” He explained, thinking this to be incredibly obvious. “My _Anya_ and me kiss all the time. And she gets me here,” He pointed to Ed’s nose. “Here,” His cheeks. “Here,” His forehead. “And… here.” He ended with a finger pointed into the other boys’ chin. “We kiss ‘cause we like each other. I love my _Anya_ , and she loves me. So we kiss. I like you, so I kiss you.” Oswald replied so matter-of-factly, showing attitude that he was very well known for in the apartment building he lived in. When he knew he was right, there was no budging him. The small, blonde boy was stubborn. “You could be a boy, or a girl. Shouldn’t matter. You’re a friend, so I kiss you.” 

Ed took in the information, listening intently to something he could learn from the other boy. “What’s an Anya?”

“Anya? That’s my Mom. She’s my _Anya_. She speaks English **and** Hungryan. So she teaches me. Anya means mom in Hungryan.” He spoke the facts that he believed he knew, not dreadfully far off in memory. He’d been saying it wrong for some time, although Gertrud attempted to correct him, Oswald would go back to his version quickly which got a laugh from her.

“Oh, that’s super neat!” Ed’s admiration for information was early from his childhood, though not many adults took him seriously in what he knew. Or tried to know. Many of them actually thought he needed special teaching to catch up with his peers. No one knew that Ed had an incredibly difficult time reading anything close to him. Everything in their studies was done in small print out sheets or in work booklets. Very little was done individually over a distance, and when it was he often wasn’t chosen because the teachers didn’t want to out him in front of the others for what they believed he didn’t know. 

Ed’s father didn’t know he needed glasses, leaving the farsighted boy struggling to read and learn anything on a page in front of him. When asked what something was on his paper he didn’t know to say that things were blurred for him, that he had difficulty seeing the information. He believed that’s what everyone dealt with to some extent, his was just worse. When asked what his papers said he’d reply with an honest _‘I don’t know’_ , leaving the teachers to believe the boy needed remedial education when he couldn’t read what was in front of him despite their continued efforts to explain.

“Yeah! My _Anya_ is really, really smart.” Oswald stated proudly, his feet kicking in his happiness of being able to brag about his mother to someone else who could admire her talents. “When she comes to get me, you should meet her!” He suggested to Ed, smiling at his own brilliant suggestion. 

A small body approached them, a kid in just his socks that Oswald recognized from earlier. The sandy brown-haired boy that was Babs’ not-boyfriend. Jimmy. “I know you did it.”

Ed froze beside Oswald who stared at Jimmy with a quickly developing frown. “You don’t know anything. Why’s your girlfriend not here?”

“She’s not my girlfriend…” Jimmy huffed, stomping his foot on the matted flooring in protest. “I know you glued it.” 

“Nu-uh.”

“Yuh-huh.”

“Nu-uh plus one.”

“Yuh-huh plus a hundred”

“Nu-uh times infinite.” Ed chirped in, feeling a little braver fighting alongside Oswald than on his own.

Both boys stopped, staring at Ed for a long moment at the sound of multiplication and an impossibly ending number. Jimmy backed up a step, eyes bouncing from Oswald to Ed and back again. “This isn’t over. I’m gonna get proof you did it. I’m gonna get you bad guys.” Jimmy claimed, needing evidence in order to build his case against the bandits. 

Oswald watched smugly as Jimmy walked away, laughing when the boy was out of sight. “Ed, how’d you know to do that?” He questioned, Berg still sitting in his lap, now forgotten with the other boy’s distraction.

Ed shrugged his shoulders softly, eyes on the floor with his shyness. “I dunno. I know lots of things, people… think I don’t.” He answered, his eyes popping wider when Oswald gave the blurry visioned boy another kiss on the cheek, happy about their victory.

“You showed him!” Oswald smiled, happy about their criminal activities bearing fruit. Their success, their escape from capture! “Stupid Jimmy can’t touch us.” He giggled, Oswald’s small fists clenched in victory. “We’re gonna run this place. You and me, Ed.” He determined quickly. With his plans and Ed’s smarts, the building would be theirs.

And maybe going to school wouldn’t be so bad when he had Ed to look forward to.

 

At the end of the day Gertrud returned to see the playhouse turned over, one of teachers still half inside it, attempting to clean all the glue out of it that had now half dried to most of the interior. She could see dried glue on the inside of Oswald’s wrist and the bottom of his shoe, not speaking a word that would get her son in trouble. She’d discuss it with him later in private. 

_“Were you being naughty today, Oswald?”_ She questioned him in her native language, keeping words out of the ears of the teachers.

 _“They made me… I didn’t mean it… Kids_ bullied _me.”_ Oswald explained in fewer words, his sentences simple with smaller things that he knew, supplementing in English where he didn’t know the translation.

Gertrud eyed him cautiously before she bent down to give him a bug. _“My poor boy, so bullied by other children. They are just jealous of you. My beautiful, little boy.”_ She complimented him, brushing his hair with her hands, playing with her son’s blonde locks that reflected what her own hair looked like, but without the grey that had been growing at her roots lately.

“ _Anya_ , I made a friend today.” Oswald informed her brightly, running off to get Ed by the hand, dragging the other boy over with him. “Look. This is Ed. He’s really smart.” Oswald introduced them proudly, Berg hanging from one hand with Ed still in the other. 

Gertrud examined the boy who seemed to shy behind Oswald more with her staring. She didn’t like the looks of him. Not in negative character, but the boy looked sad. She didn’t like that he looked lost. “Come here, boy, let me see you.” She directed with a long smile, hands out with her knuckles facing the ceiling, inviting Ed in with the closing of her fingers.

Ed glanced from Gertrud to Oswald, his new friend giving him a nod of encouragement. So Ed walked forward, missing her hands the first time he tried to get them, but she caught them on his second attempt. “Hi.” 

“And what is your name?”

“I’m Edward. Edward Nashton.” He politely introduced himself to the still smiling woman who smelled like stale cookies. Which was odd. She didn’t smell bad to him, good but kind of old. Sweet, but kind of dusty. 

Gertrud gave Ed’s hands small squeezes, Oswald watching the two while he hugged his bear against his chest with a proud smile. He knew he picked a friend his mother would like. She would like Ed. “Hello Edward, I’m Gertrud Kapelput.” Her accent with the names made Ed grin, the boy trying to hold it back, but the corner of his lip betrayed him. “Are you laughing at my words?” She questioned softly, not getting a good feeling about the boy still.

Ed locked up slightly, shaking his head quickly and straightened in his posture. “No, I’m sorry.” He apologized to her, taking back his grin, head dipped in shame.

Gertrud felt her heart drop in her chest, taking Ed in close for a hug, holding the back of his head with her hand, the other across his shoulders. _“Gyere ide, csillagom.”_ She held him for a long moment, until Ed relaxed and hugged her around the neck as best he could. “It’s okay, my dear, you can laugh. I say silly things and my words sound funny.” She allowed him, keeping him close with a sense of dread. Oswald was right to make friends with him… An experienced mother always knew when something was wrong, it didn’t have to even be her own child. 

Ed retreated when he was allowed, nodding to her in understanding. “Okay.” He returned to Oswald’s side. 

“Let us go, Oswald, we must go home now.” She held out her hand for her son, ready to leave, though hoped that her boy’s newfound friendship would last. 

Oswald nodded, hugging Ed himself before kissing the boy’s cheek again then continued to his mother’s side. He took her hand in his own, smiling to the friend he never thought he’d make that day. “Bye Ed, see you tomorrow.” 

“Bye Oswald.” Ed returned the sentiment with a wave, saying goodbye to the other.

Oswald happily told his mother about the rock Ed gave him, the boy setting it on the top of his dresser when he got home to keep it safe. It was something Oswald looked at every night before he went to sleep as time passed, always excited when he got to see Ed in the mornings.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry Edcubus is late.  
> It's been a hell of a couple weeks, and I've been so run down.
> 
> This is something I've been writing on and off for a month, and this is chapter one.  
> So to fill in the time, and I hope a distraction, until I get some time to keep it going here's a different thing!


End file.
